DOUBLE TROUBLE: A man stands in floodwaters as fire burns down a home in the 7th Ward of New Orleans on Sept. 7 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

Overcharges, poor accounting and abuses related to government assistance in the Hurricane Katrina disaster last fall will take "months or years" to rectify, the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general say. Both issued preliminary reports Monday on how billions of dollars in taxpayer money is being spent. Below are some of the findings and links to the reports.

GAO AUDIT

The GAO found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under the emergency cash assistance program, which included the debit cards given to evacuees, based their requests on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

In other instances, recipients improperly used their debit cards intended for food and shelter for $400 massages, a $450 tattoo, a $1,100 diamond engagement ring and $150 worth of products at "Condoms to Go."

Meanwhile, a one-day "snapshot" investigation found a handful of cases where hurricane victims improperly sold free military foodstuffs known as "Meals-Ready-to-Eat" on eBay.

The GAO report called for stronger controls to verify the eligibility of disaster victims who apply for aid over the phone and Internet.

The $2,000 debit cards issued to hurricane evacuees for emergency supplies were often used for purchases unrelated to disaster aid, including adult entertainment, gambling and a .45-caliber handgun for $1,300.

There was little or no verification of the names, addresses or Social Security numbers of applicants registering by phone or the Internet for the $2,000 in aid, resulting in thousands of checks issued to those with duplicate or bogus information.

Duplicate payments were made to about 5,000 of the nearly 11,000 debit card recipients who received Katrina aid, first with debit cards and then again via electronic bank transfer.

Use of bogus damaged property addresses. GAO visits to over 200 properties in Texas and Louisiana showed that at least 80 of them were bogus - including vacant lots and non-existent apartments.

HOMELAND SECURITY INSPECTOR GENERAL’S FINDINGS

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recognizes it "made many, many mistakes" and is working on improvement, said Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. "But they're not where they should be. In some cases, the government will have little legal recourse to recoup payments to contractors" where warranted.

The report called for better planning of emergency supplies for hurricanes and improved accounting of FEMA's vast inventory of temporary housing.

Discrepancies were found in FEMA's documentation of the number of travel trailers ordered, received and occupied, making it difficult to ascertain the exact units available or whether government-owned property was otherwise accounted for.

FEMA may have bought too many temporary homes - 24,967 manufactured homes obtained for $857.8 million and 1,295 modular homes at $40 million - resulting in 10,777 such homes sitting empty in Hope, Ark., in sinking mud without proper storage. "It was unclear how the decision was made," the Homeland Security audit stated.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENTFRAUD TASK FORCE

The Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors had filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.

FEMA has collectedmore than $6.1 million in disaster-assistance money returned from people who were ineligible to receive it. The Red Cross has collected about $1.9 million in returned money.

The FBI has shut down 44 "questionable" Web sites that purported to be involved in hurricane relief.

The Secret Service has shut down 16 Web sites in which the people operating them were accused of trying to harvest personal data for identity theft and fraud.

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